Brady news rocks NFL

September 09, 2008

The 2007 NFL Most Valuable Player will miss the entire '08 season with a left knee injury that needs surgery, the team said Monday. That leaves the Patriots without one of the game's great quarterbacks and severely damages their hopes of a return trip to the Super Bowl.

Coach Bill Belichick would not say what the injury is, but the play, Tom Brady's reaction and the prognosis all point toward a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

"As a team we all just have to do our jobs. That really doesn't change," Belichick said Monday, a day after Brady's knee collapsed under him when he was hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard in a 17-10 victory over Kansas City. "He played one position, he played it very well. We have somebody else playing that position now."

Matt Cassel, who guided New England to its 20th consecutive regular-season victory after Brady was hurt, will start Sunday against the New York Jets. "I'm not trying to be Tom Brady. I'm just trying to be Matt Cassel," he said when subbing for Brady on his regular weekly radio show. "I don't know where that's going to take us."

-- Seahawks WR Nate Burleson is out for the season because of a knee injury.

-- Aaron Rodgers passed his first test as Green Bay's new QB, throwing for 178 yards and a TD and scoring on a game-clinching sneak in a 24-19 victory over Minnesota Vikings on Monday night.

-- The Raiders-Broncos game in Oakland did not finish before press time on Monday night.

-- AP

"When you lose a marquee player like that, the whole league suffers. People like to watch the stars in this league. That's who they come to see."